Evil Is Easy: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|'''Luke:''' Is the Dark Side stronger?

'''Yoda:''' No, no, no. Quicker, easier, more seductive.~~|''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]''}}~~

'''Yoda:''' No, no, no. Quicker, easier, more seductive.

|''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]''}}

{{quote|"Evil is easy, and has infinite forms."|''[http://www.dictionaryquotes.com/authorquotations/636/Blaise_Pascal.php Blaise Pascal], French mathematician and [[Trope Namer]]''}}

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Evil is a vile temptress. [[Evil Is Cool|She's cool]]. [[Evil Pays Better|She's rich]]. [[Super-Powered Evil Side|She's powerful]]. [[Evil Is Sexy|She's sexy]]. [[Evil Feels Good|She makes you feel good]]. She is everything you want, if not everything you need. And the most tempting aspect of evil?

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'''Evil Is Easy'''.

She's easy.

You see, Good makes you work for her. You want her blessing, you have to take the difficult path. You have to talk to the villagers and understand their complaints instead of just blowing them up. You have to work through problems. And human problems, well, they tend to be complicated. And as Good is fond of reminding you, the pursuit of her is a never-ending quest. She is like the horizon: no matter how tenaciously you pursue Good, you're never quite going to reach her.

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There's a second, [[Video Game]] specific aspect of this trope. These days, a lot of games are fond of the [[Karma Meter]]. This allows the player to dictate the morality of the game. Unfortunately, the evil options tend to be quick, clean, easy. They don't require [[Level Grinding]] or other annoyances. The good options, on the other hand, require effort, puzzle solving skills and other time-intensive activities.

[[I Thought It Meant|Has nothing to do ~~with~~]] [[Evil Is Sexy|sexy villains]] being [[Really Gets Around|easier to get into bed]].

[[I Thought It Meant|Has nothing to do]] with [[Evil Is Sexy|sexy villains]] being [[Really Gets Around|easier to get into bed]].

==Examples of the first facet include:==

=== Anime ===

=== Anime and Manga ===

* Negi Springfield of ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' chose Black Magic because the light path wasn't fast enough. The reward in this case was power. Somewhat subverted in that it's not ''actually'' evil, just much more dangerous—both to himself and others.

* In [[Dragon Ball]] Muten Roshi repeatedly tells that Tao Pai-Pai and the Crane Hermit have gone "The easy way of evil".

=== Film ===

* Several ''[[Star Wars]]'' mentor figures refer to [[The Dark Side]] as "the easy path."

** This is a gameplay mechanic in the tabletop game, where at lower levels using the Dark Side provides more benefits, but it quickly peters off and is eclipsed by the Light.

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=== Literature ===

* ''[[Harry Potter]]'': Dumbledore at the end of the fourth book refers to the choice between "what is right and what is easy."

* In the title, and pretty much the thesis, of the thriller ''One Bad Thing''. The goodly characters have never done anything truly wrong, but those who commit one misdeed and realize [[Karma Houdini|there's no cosmic retribution]] lose a good portion of their restraint, and in all but one case become jerkasses or villains. (That one case is the main character, and really isn't evil so much as chaotic, but is [[Values Dissonance|treated as mildly repulsive]] in a manner similar to [[Great Expectations|Magwitch]] or [[A Tale of Two Cities|Sydney Carton]].)

* No one read Lukianienko's ''Watches''? Ending of the last book is specifically about this trope.

=== Live Action TV ===

=== Live-Action TV ===

* [[Barack Obama]] stated in one of his early 2009 speeches that "America does what is necessary, not what is easy" (or something like that). This was parodied on ''[[The Daily Show]]'', where [[Jon Stewart]] asked Obama "Have you ''met'' America?" and provided a number of examples where Americans chose the easy road over the right one.

{{quote|''"We invented the Roomba because [[wikipedia:Vacuum cleaner|the other automatic cleaning device]] we invented required us to ''[get up and move around]''."''}}

=== Music ===

* Referenced in DMX's ''Damien III'''

{{quote|'''DMX'''- "I don't even know why I fucked with you from the door!"

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To know what's good and to know what's easy }}

=== Myth ~~And~~ Legend ===

=== Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myth and Legend ===

* This goes back all the way to ancient Greek philosophy. The Cynics had a legend about Heracles being at a crossways. One path was smooth and easy, the path to vice; the other was rocky and full of thorns, and it was the path to virtue.

** A very similar image appears in the [[Child Ballad]] "Thomas the Rhymer":

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That is the path of righteousness,

Tho after it but few enquires. }}

{{quote|"And see not ye that braid braid road,

That lies across that lily leven?

That is the path to wickedness,

Tho some call it the road to heaven." }}

=== Religion ===

* Jesus says this in the [[The Bible|Gospel of Matthew]]:

{{quote|"''Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.''"}}

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=== Web Comics ===

* There's one in ''[[Shadowgirls]]''.

{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Becka'''}}: If you have two choices you can usually tell which one is right. Because it's the hardest one.}}

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=== Western Animation ===

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* ''[[Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness]]'' has this when [[Owl Be Damned|Fenghuang]] wants Po to [[Face Heel Turn|join her]] in "Owl Be Back". Unlike [[Stern Teacher|Shifu]], she's not just ''willing'' to teach him all sorts of cool kung-fu moves, but ''eager', to the point she turns {{spoiler|her assault on the Jade Palace}} into an impromptu, entertaining and fast-paced training session. She also lavishes him with praise and calls him a fast learner, as opposed to Shifu repeatedly pointing out his flaws.

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* ''[[Kung Fu Panda: ~~Legends of Awesomeness|Kung Fu Panda~~ Legends of Awesomeness]]'' has this when [[Owl Be Damned|Fenghuang]] wants Po to [[Face Heel Turn|join her]] in "Owl Be Back". Unlike [[Stern Teacher|Shifu]], she's not just ''willing'' to teach him all sorts of cool kung-fu moves, but ''eager', to the point she turns {{spoiler|her assault on the Jade Palace}} into an impromptu, entertaining and fast-paced training session. She also lavishes him with praise and calls him a fast learner, as opposed to Shifu repeatedly pointing out his flaws.

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* In ''Might & Magic VI'', reaching the Saintly reputation (required for Master of Light Magic) requires you to trudge through quest after quest, slowly building your reputation. However, becoming Master of Dark Magic (requires the worst "Notorious" reputation) takes less than 30 seconds of killing innocent villagers.

* Inverted in the main quest of the first ''[[Fable (video game series)|Fable]]'' game. Said main quest gives you good points fairly often, and evil points fairly rarely, so unless you go out of your way to slaughter civilians, you'll probably end up good.

** Played straight outside of the plot: things which give you good points when you kill them, like bandits and undead, are rather difficult to find in large groups and yield only 5 good points. Guards, though slightly harder to kill, spawn infinitely and yield 20 evil points. Also, you can get 600 evil points easy by [[~~Author~~ On Board|divorcing your spouse]].

** Played straight outside of the plot: things which give you good points when you kill them, like bandits and undead, are rather difficult to find in large groups and yield only 5 good points. Guards, though slightly harder to kill, spawn infinitely and yield 20 evil points. Also, you can get 600 evil points easy by [[Writer on Board|divorcing your spouse]].

** Fable is an inversion in that while evil acts are as simple as punching out a window, becoming evil is a full-time job as the default in the game is Good, and going evil mid-game requires multiple [[Moral Event Horizon]] in order to be recognized as evil.

** ''Fable'' is an inversion in that while evil acts are as simple as punching out a window, becoming evil is a full-time job as the default in the game is Good, and going evil mid-game requires multiple [[Moral Event Horizon]] in order to be recognized as evil.

** As an in-game example, the ~~tweo~~ temples require different types of sacrifice. Avo requests money, Skorm request humans. Guess which is easier to collect enough of in order to get the good weapons?

** As an in-game example, the two temples require different types of sacrifice. Avo requests money, Skorm request humans. Guess which is easier to collect enough of in order to get the good weapons?

** In Fable 2, during the part of the story where {{spoiler|you're a Spire guard, disobeying the evil commandant makes you lose experience}}, while taking the evil actions has no negative consequences except, if you don't want them, evil points.

** In ''Fable 2'', during the part of the story where {{spoiler|you're a Spire guard, disobeying the evil commandant makes you lose experience}}, while taking the evil actions has no negative consequences except, if you don't want them, evil points.

** Played very straight in Fable 3, where {{spoiler|you have to make several evil decisions if you want to save all the people of Albion and you don't have 8.5 million gold.}}

** Played very straight in ''Fable 3'', where {{spoiler|you have to make several evil decisions if you want to save all the people of Albion and you don't have 8.5 million gold.}}

* ''[[Infamous (video game series)|In Famous]]'' seems to invoke both parts of this trope. It's easy to sway the Karma meter to evil (Meleeing a civilian with low-ranked melee skill granted like 4 ticks of bad Karma vs. the 1 for healing a downed one,) and Evil often [[Evil Pays Better|Pays Better]], as well. Take the 1 bit of payment from the guy you just helped, or kill him for 5? Hmm...

** It also makes the game itself easier, good is precision and nonlethality, evil is destruction of whatever gets in the way of you and your enemy, it's easier to play through hard mode when you can spend less time aiming and more time shooting.

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** Subverted in the sense that the Cross (or more specifically [[Made of Iron|Divine Armor]]) is a ''massive'' [[Game Breaker]], so any effort spent on buffing your Holy EXP is well worth any amount of tedium the minigames may cause. A ''[[Word of God|very]]'' [[Shown Their Work|deliberate]] bit of [[Fridge Brilliance]] with this.

* ''[[Bioshock]]'' zigzags this. If you choose to harvest the Little Sisters (as in, killing adorable little girls), you'll gain more [[Unobtainium| ADAM]] than you would from saving them. This makes the first parts of the game a lot easier, and might be a viable strategy for beginner players. However, the ADAM is the only thing you get from this. Saving them, however, while yielding less ADAM, also grants gifts in the form of items and weapons, and the more rescued sisters, the more powerful the gifts. This leads to better long-term rewards later on, along with the best ending in the game - where you get them as a loving family.

* The ''[[Hitman]]'' franchise inverts this. Granted, Agent 47 is not the most moral of protagonists, being an assassin, but he is ''supposed'' to eliminate his targets covertly, with as little fanfare and unnecessary deaths as possible. If the player ignores the general theme of the game and makes a habit of slaughtering civilians, 47's Notority Level will skyrocket quickly; if it's too high, civilians will flee from him in panic, his ~~diguises~~ will become much less convincing, and armed ~~resistence~~ will increase in number and efficiency, making his job harder and harder. Which will, in fact, make it much harder to bring the Notority Level down.

* The ''[[Hitman]]'' franchise inverts this. Granted, Agent 47 is not the most moral of protagonists, being an assassin, but he is ''supposed'' to eliminate his targets covertly, with as little fanfare and unnecessary deaths as possible. If the player ignores the general theme of the game and makes a habit of slaughtering civilians, 47's Notority Level will skyrocket quickly; if it's too high, civilians will flee from him in panic, his disguises will become much less convincing, and armed resistance will increase in number and efficiency, making his job harder and harder. Which will, in fact, make it much harder to bring the Notority Level down.

[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]

[[Category:Evil Tropes]]

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~~[[Category:~~Evil Is Easy]]